Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
September 21, 2015
Malaysia cloud-seeding, schools closed, due to haze
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A layer of heavy haze forced Malaysian
authorities to shut schools in four states, including Kuala Lumpur, with officials
using cloud-seeding operations to try to induce rain to help clear the air. The
thick, dirty white haze blanketed many parts of Malaysia, with 34 out of 52 air
quality stations recording unhealthy air levels. Meteorological department
official Maznorizan Mohamad said two cloud-seeding planes took off in Kuala
Lumpur and surrounding areas, as well as in Kuching in Sarawak state on
Borneo island. The haze affects the region every year, and is largely caused by
slashing and burning forests to clear land for agriculture in Indonesia.
Nintendo names new president after Iwata death
TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo named a long-serving executive as president
following the death in July of Satoru Iwata. Nintendo said the board decided to
appoint Tatsumi Kimishima, 65, as president to strengthen management of the
video-game maker. In addition, a new title of “Creative Fellow” was announced
for star game designer and senior managing director Shigeru Miyamoto.
Nintendo said the title was meant to convey his role in providing advice and
guidance. Another senior executive, Genyo Takeda, was given the title
“Technology Fellow.” The company said the new titles were part of a “large-scale
revision” of Nintendo’s organizational structure. Kimishima was a managing
director of the company in charge of corporate analysis, general affairs, and
human-resources divisions. He has been at Nintendo since 2000, when he was
appointed director of its Pokémon characters business. Iwata, president from
2002, was a highly visible spokesman for Nintendo, and many in the game
industry mourned the 55-year-old’s death, which followed a long illness. Earlier
this year, Nintendo did an about-face and announced it would go into games for
mobile devices, a move it had scoffed for years.
North Korea to launch satellites to mark party anniversary
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea says it will launch satellites aboard
long-range rockets to mark the 70th anniversary of its ruling party’s founding in
October. A National Aerospace Development Administration director says the
world will “clearly see a series of satellites soaring into the sky at times and
locations determined” by the Workers’ Party. The unidentified official’s
comments were carried by Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency. The
official said North Korea is pushing forward on a final development phase for a
new earth observation satellite for weather forecasts. The launches, if made, are
certain to rekindle animosities on the Korean Peninsula. South Korea, the U.S.,
and other neighboring countries view past launches as disguised tests of the
North’s long-range missile technology.
Spilled wine causes traffic accident that kills 12 in China
BEIJING (AP) — A slick of rice wine that spilled from a truck caused a traffic
accident that killed 12 people in central China, according to authorities. A
bus following the truck overturned on the slippery road, and another freight
truck then crashed into the bus shortly after midnight, said the Xinxian
county government in Henan province. Nine people were killed at the scene and
three more died at the hospital, the Xinxian government said on its website.
Nineteen other people were hospitalized, including two people with serious
injuries. Police detained the drivers of the bus and the truck carrying the rice
wine. The accident took place at Xinyang, Henan, on the Daqing-Guangzhou
expressway.
Netflix plans expansion to four more Asian markets
HONG KONG (AP) — Netflix says it’s planning to enter four more Asian
markets next year as the internet video-streaming service steps up its
international expansion. People in South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and
Taiwan will be able to watch the company’s films and television shows on
internet-connected devices starting in early 2016, it said in a statement. The
announcement happened a month after the Los Gatos, California-based
company announced plans to expand into Japan. It already operates in
Australia and New Zealand. Netflix has ambitions to make its service available
throughout the world and has already been selling its services in more than 50
other countries outside the U.S. The company is borrowing $1 billion to help
finance its global expansion, which it plans to complete by the end of next year.
However, it may have to forge partnerships to enter some countries such as
China, where there is stiff competition from state-owned broadcasters and
media companies as well as big, private internet firms.
MODERN MONKS. Women Buddhist monks walk during morning alms rounds in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. Thai-
land’s top Buddhist authority bars women from becoming monks. A rare sight, female monastics, or bhikkhunis, are
emerging as a force for reform, not unlike activists in the Christian world seeking gender equality, including ordination
of women as priests in the Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Penny Yi Wang)
‘Rebel’ female Buddhist monks
challenge Thailand status quo
By Denis D. Gray
The Associated Press
AKHON PATHOM, Thailand — On a
rural road just after daybreak, vil-
lagers young and old kneel reverently
before a single-file line of ochre-robed women,
filling their bowls with rice, curries, fruits, and
sweets. In this country, it’s a rare sight.
Thailand’s top Buddhist authority bars
women from becoming monks. They can only
become white-cloaked nuns, who are routinely
treated as domestic servants. Many here
believe women are inferior beings who had
better perform plenty of good deeds to ensure
they will be reborn as men in their future lives.
Yet with the religion beset by lurid scandals,
female monastics, or bhikkhunis, are
emerging as a force for reform, not unlike
activists in the Christian world seeking gender
equality, including ordination of women as
priests in the Catholic Church. They are
growing in numbers and appear to be making
headway.
Thailand has some 100 bhikkhunis who
were ordained in Sri Lanka, where women are
allowed to become monks. They and their
monasteries are not legally recognized in
Thailand, and don’t enjoy state funding and
other support that the country’s 200,000 male
monks are granted.
Living spartan lives, the women are
governed by 311 precepts from celibacy and
poverty to archaic ones like having to confess
after eating garlic. Their ranks and those of
hundreds of aspirants — there are five stages
before ordination — include a former Google
executive, a Harvard graduate, journalists,
N
and doctors, as well as village noodle vendors.
“It is our right, our heritage, to lead a fully
monastic life. We are on the right side of
history,” says Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, an
author, former university professor, and the
first bhikkhuni in Thailand from the Therava-
da branch of Buddhism, which is dominant in
Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Using her
religious name of Venerable Dhammananda,
she contends that the Buddha 2,500 years ago
built the religion as a four-legged stool —
monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen — but
“we are now sitting on just three legs.”
The male-dominated religion has been
blighted in recent years by crimes and gross
violations of vows, just as widespread sex
abuse and Vatican financial scandals have
damaged the Roman Catholic Church.
Monks in Thailand have been convicted of
everything from murder to wildlife trafficking.
Sexual depravity is frequently reported. One
former abbot, fugitive Wirapol Sukphol, faces
charges of drug use, money laundering,
fathering a child by an underage woman, and
illegally amassing millions of dollars. A
photograph shows him seated in a private jet
wearing aviator sunglasses.
The Supreme Sangha Council, the religion’s
ruling body, is under fire over the mishandling
of corruption allegations against prominent
abbots, including one of its own members. The
allegations include embezzling funds intended
for the cremation of an abbot’s predecessor and
the investment of $1.2 million from donations
into the stock market.
With Buddhism so intimately tied to Thai
identity — more than 90 percent adhere to the
Continued on page 4
Asian Currency
Exchange Rates
Units per U.S. dollar as of 9/18
Indonesia chooses medium-speed train plan
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia has dropped its plan to build a
high-speed train line and is shifting instead to more economical medium-speed
technology, according to a cabinet minister. Coordinating minister of economy
Darmin Nasution said high-speed service is not suitable for the relatively short
distance of 150 kilometers (93 miles) between Jakarta and Bandung, West
Java’s provincial capital. “The president’s decision is that we don’t need a
high-speed railway. A medium speed of 200 to 250 kilometers per hour is
enough,” Nasution said. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who took office last
October, has ambitious plans for improving Indonesia’s infrastructure which he
says will boost manufacturing and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
Nasution said a medium-speed rail system would take only 11 minutes more
than a high-speed system to make the trip, while its construction cost would be
about 40 percent cheaper.
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77.795
4095.5
6.3643
2.1692
7.75
65.674
14374
29856
119.44
8137.5
4.1965
105.13
104.38
2.8409
46.27
65.746
3.7503
1.3901
1162.8
140.55
32.416
35.55
22460